1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a storage battery cover having a handle turnably attached to a lid body which closes the opening in a battery casing, and particularly it relates to a construction which makes such handle turnable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A handle is often attached to a storage battery for conveniently lifting or carrying the storage battery.
Such handle is needed only when the storage battery is carried by hand, and in other situations the present of the handle often forms a hindrance. Therefore, it is desirable that the handle have a form which is not bulky when it is not used.
Thus, if a handle is made turnable when it is attached to the lid of a storage battery, the handle can be raised only when necessary and lowered when it is not used. Therefore, as one means which satisfies said desires, it may be contemplated to turnably attach a handle to the lid. A storage battery equipped with a handle thus made turnable is disclosed, for example in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 78534/1978.
In this prior art, support pins are installed on opposite sides of the lid of a battery casing, said support pins being inserted in attachment holes in the opposite ends of a handle, so that the handle is turnable around the support pins, the arrangement being such that when the handle is not used, it can be lowered to extend along the lid. Particularly in the prior art disclosed in the above publication, the peripheral edge of the lid has a receiving step portion for receiving the handle when the latter is not used, and the pins installed in the lid are provided with slip-off preventive elements.
On the other hand, there is an arrangement wherein a handle is turnably attached to a lateral surface of the battery casing of a storage battery. And to make such handle turnable, the handle is made of resin and the flexibility of the resin is utilized to make the handle bendable through a thin-walled hinge; such handle attachment construction is described, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 25496/1981.
In this second prior art, a pair of handles is installed on a pair of opposed outer lateral surfaces of a battery casing. When the handles are to be used, they are raised to extend along the lateral surfaces of the battery jar, with the grips of the handles projecting above the upper surface of the lid, but when the handles are not used, they extend downwardly along the outer lateral surfaces of the battery casing.
However, the two prior art references described above have the following problems.
In the first mentioned reference, in connection with the operation for attaching the handle to the support pins, a relatively complicated procedure of inserting the support pins into the respective attachment holes is involved, so that automation cannot be made so easily.
As for a problem about molding, it is impossible or very difficult to integrally mold a lid as by injection molding which, while being formed with a receiving step portion, is provided with laterally projecting support pins which are formed with slip-off preventive elements. Therefore, actually, support pins would be prepared separately from the lid and then attached to the lid. However, it is difficult to attach the support pins to the lid accurately at the predetermined positions on the lid. If the positions of the support pins are deviated, it sometimes happens that the handle, when lowered, cannot properly fit the receiving step portion.
Further, the rotatable or hingeable construction for a combination of support pins and attachment holes requires a relatively large space, resulting in an increase in the size of the battery casing for the storage battery.
Next, in the second reference mentioned above, the handles are attached so that they project beyond the outer lateral surfaces of the storage battery; thus, in the case where a plurality of such storage batteries are used as they are arranged side by side, the presence of such handles inevitably forms dead spaces. Further, when the storage battery is received in receiving means such as a box, the handles form an obstacle to the reception of the battery in the box so that it becomes necessary to increase the size of the receiving box.
In the case where a plurality of storage batteries are arranged side by side or a storage battery is put in a receiving box, as described above, it is more desirable from the standpoint of making the receiving box compact to place the handle directed downward along the lateral surface of the battery jar than to place it upright projecting above the upper surface of the storage battery. However, if there is not so much room around the location where the storage battery is to be placed, there can be a case where the handle cannot be directed downwardly after the storage battery has been placed in its operating location unless the handle is directed downwardly even during a series of movements starting with the lifting of the storage battery by the handle and ending with the placing of the battery in its predetermined operating location. Next, where the storage battery is to be lifted from a predetermined location, there arises another inconvenience in that the handle cannot be used from the start unless there is enough room around the storage battery to direct the handle upwardly. In the situations described above, even if a handle is attached to the storage battery, unfortunately the handle cannot be used effectively.
Further, in the case where handles are attached to opposed outer lateral surfaces of the battery casing of a the handles have to be respectively held by both hands before the storage battery can be lifted horizontal; thus, a man can carry only one storage battery at a time.